Site Stats

Dante's Inferno Preview

Electronic Arts shocked us when they announced they'd be putting out a videogame based on Dante Alighieri's "Inferno", which is actually an entry in a collection of books called The Divine Comedy. Granted, there is nothing comedic about Dante's Inferno, seeing as how this is basically Electronic Arts' very own God of War game, and that means tons of gore and demonic imagery. But don't be confused about Dante's Inferno, either, because the game is only loosely based on the book - as the story, while it pays homage to the original, also takes its own creative approach. One such example of that creativity is making the character of Beatrice Portinari Dante's love-interest in the game, this was not the case in the literature.

In any case, unlike Ben, I am not very versed on the details of this series, so I'll refrain from making any further comparisons between game and book. That said, this preview is here to tell you how fantastic Dante's Inferno plays. EA has put out a demo of the game, and while God of War is clearly what the aim is, Dante's Inferno never felt like a blatant rip-off. In fact, the game manages to stand on its own quite well, as its atmosphere and story creates a huge rift between it and Sony's game.

Dante's Inferno plays every bit as fluid as God of War does. You have your scythe, which serves as Dante's main weapon capable of both low and high attacks. Naturally, low attacks come out quick, meanwhile high attacks are a bit slower but deal a lot more damage. Assigned to your circle button is a magic attack using Beatrice's Holy Cross. The Holy Cross attack is dealt much like that of Devil May Cry's guns, so you can spam and combo with it freely - which helps aid the fluidity of the game.

Boss battles are pretty straightforward, and in some cases certain beasts that you defeat can be tamed and used by Dante. Usually taming a beast involves getting rid of the original beast rider first by depleting the beast's health, and then by initiating the QTE and timing your button hits. Controlling the beasts isn't usually done for a long time, as you'll only need them to break something down or solve a specific puzzle.

Visually, the game can stand to look better. There are many muddy textures to be found on the characters and environments - and they look particularly obvious when watching the cutscenes. But the game does run at 60 frames per second, which is certainly nice, albeit I still think there's room for improvement, visually.

The fact of the matter is that Dante's Inferno plays superbly well, and don't think you have to choose one action game over another. Both God of War III and Dante's Inferno must end up in your library next year.

Higher textures are great in games that have you looking at the scenery quite a bit and story driven games where you are immersed in the game world, but for a balls out fast action game like this and GoW I would have to say a silky smooth 60fps is more desirable to me. I mean any hitch or hiccup in the frames when you are trying to fight off a horde of enemies and keep your multiplier as high as possible is just inexcusable.

i gotta say sometimes i do frefer silky smooth textures as you will... But in an action game like this or GOW3 you must run it at 60fps. I mean GOW3 is said to have up to 50 enemies on screen at once. With that said you would not want any hiccup while trying to fend off that swarm of enemies. That would be more aggrivating that a little lag online which is extremely crucial to life or death sometimes! While the framerate may not end up resulting in your death who wants it to slow way down and lose what was a bad ass multiplier!

Everyone has good points but for a game like this you need that 60fps to keep it moving at the pace it was intended!

Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2 did a great job of maintaining both a very consistent 60fps, hi polygon count, and hight texture detail, large number of on-screen assets and enemies, and life-like enemy AI. However, NGS2 is more of a beat'um-up than an action adventurer, and so the frame-rate is more crucial.

For GOW3, I don't mind a lower, but locked frame-rate for the sake of higher texture detail, and sick level design. I must say I enjoyed the demo for GOW3 much more than Dante's Inferno, although I admit, DI's production values are surprising, the framerate was neat, and the background graphics are well done. My only gripe is that it looks very generic. Dante actually looks like the beta/place-holder that San Monico studio's had for Kratos! They could've made him look more stylized and less cluttered, that's for sure.

I tried the demo and was quite impressed. Though there's some aspects which are obvious GoW influences (Health display, green replenishing station for health, some of the hack/slash action) the game's story is what will make it different from GoW. I'm looking to hear/see more about this as we approach February.

This wasn't a game that really hit my radar untill the demo dropped I played it and liked it unlike bayonetta, people keep saying how much better the latter will be over GOW3 and DI. Not for me, I guess it's because I never liked the DMC series, is why I don't like bayonetta it felt similar in control and movement and, and probaly why I'll pick up DI because it is basically GOW (which I love) with a different story and art design.

I must say: I wasn't expecting too much from this one and boy was I wrong. I've played through the demo a number of times and I really enjoy the action. I was especially surprised at how darn good it looked! The opening cinematic - SPOILER ALERT - where he was sewing the Crusader Cross to his chest looked amazing. His face, the light bouncing around - far better than I expected. I'm looking forward to final reviews and this will definately be a purchase for me (when things slow down in summer).
Also - having studied the "Divine Comedy" - I was pleasantly surprised with the way they incorporated some of the places and characters. I'm dying (see what I did there) to follow the story of this game and find out just where they take it.

"Both God of War III and Dante's Inferno must end up in your library next year."

If maybe there weren't any other games coming out or if you sh** dollar bills.Why waste $120 on two games that play and look similar when I could just get the superior game(GOW)and use the other $60 on one of the many triple AAA games coming out in 2010.

Both will end up in my collection, but Dante's will prob be a buy after the price drops for me. Just way too many AAA titles coming out in the first 3 months of the year. Plus the few I'm still waitin to get from this year. Thank god for income taxes in Feb, I'll prob be spending about $300+ easy.

first i gotta say this is a fun game and one day it will probably end up in my library! But from the start you can tell it is a GOW rip off, which isnt a bad thing! In the preview Arnold you stated that it wasnt a rip off, but everything from the way you get health and magicka by breaking those fountains is the same as opening chests by mashing the circle button, the orbs for health magicka etc., and even the display. Now aside from that they are in 2 completely different worlds, and stories but dispite that they resemble in a lot of ways.

Thats not a bad thing because the formula for GOW worked excellent, and has paved the way for a lot of games just like Dantes Inferno. So really i dont mind that its almost a rip off but i definitely wont be picking it up til' after GOW3 and the price drops! Just preference i guess!Last edited by bigrailer19 on 12/16/2009 5:42:50 PM

"...and it supports custom soundtracks"What it actually has something over god of war3?Don't get me wrong god of war is the one im waiting for but it would be so much better, for replays anyway, with cs. Slaughtering demons and whatnot to such gospel as gods of war arise by amon amarth, or hermods ride to hell, Bolt Thrower, Devildriver, it goes on and on.But am I the only where the default block was L2? Worked perfect, triggers should always be used for the most common actions that need split second timing, like saaaay a shoot button? I'm lookin at u MW2 and all those other ones, whats so great about R1 when you have actual triggers?

the reason for using R1 over R2 is its farther back. some people may be comfortable with that but not myself! in fact if i had to dominantly use R2 i would end up using my middle finger which is not comfortable for me!

Thats just my preference, and yes R2 is a trigger button but sometimes it just doesnt work with the control scheme of the game. Especially in MW2.

I hate using R2 as a trigger (for shooting). It's annoying when developers copy the 360 layout button-for-button without regard to how the controller sits in your hands. Being able to use the L2/R2 buttons with your middle fingers is one of the reasons Sony controllers are superior.

I haven't managed to kill Death yet, I don't know why or what I am doing wrong; but anyway I agree with people here predominantly about the technicalities. I think for full price game purchases people are generally looking for superlative quality in a product. Sloppy texturing or low resolution graphical work is not appreciated. As stated above can't really tell between 30fps and 60fps really, there are tail tail signs, but difficult to spot if you are emerged in the action of the game mechanic.

I would rather have the higher textures and more detailed scenery... its all part of the artistry you are purchasing and keeping in your collection. Why not have the best that can be offered. Dante is multiplat though, so there may be reasons why cross compiling means not permitting the best of the best possible.

I may wait to pick up GoWIII and then wait for Dante to drop in price and pick it up a few months later... together the price averages out to something acceptable.

id suggest re downloading the demo.ive finished it six times now, and none of the times did i get a countdown.maybe its a glitch in the version you downloaded.either that or hop onto visceral blog and see what they say.dont ask EA though, there customer support is as useful as a empty paint tin.

Thanks "anonymous"; I may do what you just advised. I will delete it, re-download and re-install to see why Death has been behaving so badly... I will have a word with Death one day when its my turn to depart...

Got the demo the second It appeared on the store. Im very excited about this game. The Demo was beyond what I expected out of a multiplat. The demo was like the GOW3 one as in twice or three times as long as a normal demo. Visual wise GOW3 dominates even the old build that is the e3 demo, but the great part is you can take that godly perfect control and game play and now have a second slighly wussy looking guy (compared to Kratos) and a dif story.

i wouldent say dantes a wussy looking kind of guy even in comparison to kratos.i mean that opening cut scene made me cringe, and im normally very tolerant to that type of stuff.the cross is really cool though hes fu***ng insane!maybe a step down from kratos, but certainly not a wuss.

Yeah maybe not a wuss but he has that trained look, like he would report to someone, where Kratos tolerates people for a lil while but even gods fear him. I guess the story makes Kratos so much larger.

only thing i did not like about the demo is its so much like GOW.from the health system, to the QTEs after bosses, to the controls, to the magic.almost everything is taken from GOW.to me dantes inferno is not about the combat because GOW, bayonetta all kick the living tripe out of it in that aspect.dantes inferno is all about story and atmosphere.i mean come on your in hell for christs sake!im seriously worried about this though, looks like another game ill be buying off ebay.just saw the limbo level where you massive flying babies.hmmmmmmmmmmmm thats not going to go down well.i can see the headlines already.video game teaches you how to silence babies.

Yes, the game plays similarly to God of War, but that doesn't mean you cannot pick up the game. Take it as EA recognizing that God of War is such a good series that they're implementing more or less the same style of gameplay.

Now, if the game was based on greek mythology and the character looked similar to Kratos then I would understand if gamers don't want to pick it up.

Am I alone when I say I prefer the Scythe over Kratos's blades of chaos? O.o